Lisboa Carmo Hotel

The staff was fabulous, very polite, kind and willing to help out in every way. The location is perfect. Highly recommend it

Our room was great, comfy bed, spacious bathroom.

- Perfect location - Wonderful neighbourhood with several quality restaurants - Friendly English speaking staff - Very large bed with excellent mattress - Rain shower - Good breakfast. You can make pancakes yourself. - Clean

The lighting in the room is inadequate.

Wonderful staff, very helpful with all our questions and requests, perfect location. Our family loved this hotel, small, cozy, clean, well maintained…

Nothing went wrong!

The hotel is in an excellent location, with a very friendly bar and restaurant and exceptionally comfortable beds. It is situated in a quiet neighborhood with several pleasant, pedestrian-friendly streets, making it an enjoyable area to explore on foot. The woman at the front desk was courteous, professional, and impressively multilingual. Unfortunately, these positive aspects were overshadowed by an unexpected and potentially serious incident, as well as what I perceived to be an inadequate response from the staff. On my first morning, I took a shower and closed the sliding bathroom door. When I attempted to leave the bathroom, the poorly secured door handle came off (photo attached), trapping me inside. I spent approximately 20–25 minutes trying to force the door open, pounding on the wall and shouting for help in my limited Portuguese. Fortunately, a member of the housekeeping staff eventually realized that something was wrong and opened the door from the other side, allowing me to get out. I thanked her profusely and asked her to enter the bathroom and try the door herself so that she could understand exactly what had happened and see that the problem was not simply guest error. She understood and left the room. I then went to the front desk, explained what had happened, and asked for assistance. A maintenance employee, who was very polite, came to the room and spent at least 20 minutes working on it. It appeared that the spring bolt or roller catch had engaged and become stuck in the closed position. He apologized, which I accepted and appreciated. However, while I had been trying to find a way to escape, I had also noticed that several of the handles, latches, and connecting components appeared to be loosely attached or in poor condition.

I understand that mechanical failures can occasionally happen, even with well-maintained equipment. However, this was not simply a minor inconvenience: a guest had been trapped inside a bathroom and was able to get out only because a member of the housekeeping staff happened to be nearby and realized there was a problem. Had this occurred later in the day, after housekeeping staff had left, any guest could potentially have been trapped there overnight. What was most disappointing was the apparent lack of recognition of the risk this posed when I reported it at the front desk. Having worked in the service industry myself, I would have expected the hotel to give immediate attention to a guest who had just experienced something like this; at a minimum, to offer them a place to sit, a cup of coffee, and reassurance, and to have a manager or assistant manager speak with them personally to understand what had happened and ensure that the issue was addressed in all rooms -- in case this was a design flaw that left other guests vulnerable. Unfortunately, none of this occurred. As a result, I subsequently informed the front desk that I was cancelling the remainder of my reservation and moving to another hotel. In fairness to them, my request was simply accepted and my money refunded without delay. My overall impression of the property began very positively, and under different circumstances I might have had an excellent stay. However, the bathroom door failure was a serious safety issue, and the hotel's nonplussed response afterward was ultimately what led me to leave. The incident itself was unfortunate; the lack of meaningful acknowledgment, risk management or follow-up was even more disappointing.